A Rocky Road to Brotherly Love
by tetekanui
Summary: *INSPIRED BY ROBIN LEE'S FIC. ORIGINAL IDEA NOT MINE.* Two orphaned five-year-olds living in Brooklyn grow up to be the Mushroom Kingdom's finest heroes. Their thorny past is present within them, and one or both are not what they seem.
1. Prologue

**DISCLAIMER: **This is fanfiction OF another author's work of fanfiction. This story will be based on Robin Lee's "Brotherly Love," and the idea is all hers. I requested and was granted permission from the author to do this. Here is a link to the original fic: .net/s/1016107/1/Brotherly_Love, and without further ado, I give you

_A Rocky Road to Brotherly Love_

(inspired in part by Robin Lee's "Brotherly Love")

Prologue

"Why can't you—" The boy was out of breath and nearing the end of his rope. "Learn—to—dodge!" With every staccato word, he landed a solid whack on his brother's body.

Luigi gripped his own pole in his hands, but made no move to strike back, biting his lip and trying hard not to cry. He never cried in front of his big brother. That lesson had been drilled into him well. That was exactly the problem with Mario. He always had to _beat_ lessons into Luigi. Like now…Luigi's shoulders were throbbing from the stinging, unforgiving bamboo pole with which Mario had struck him, and Luigi had no doubt that ugly red welts were rising in those sore spots.

Red. Hah! That was fitting, Luigi thought, as Mario lowered his pole at last. Taking advantage of this break, not sure how long it would last, Luigi dropped his guard completely and gingerly probed his shoulder with gentle fingers, his eyes narrowing in an automatic wince. Yes, Mario had left his red mark on Luigi. It seemed to him that when he closed his eyes, his senses would be flooded with that color, the color most prominent in his life, the color he associated with pain, blood…and Mario.

"On your guard, Luigi!" Mario ordered impatiently, snapping his pole back into place and preparing another swing. "_Focus!_"

Luigi _was_ focused. His eyes followed the pole's every movement. He was terrified of being hurt again. He wished he could run away. Unbidden, a daydream floated into his mind. What if he just threw the pole down and ran out of reach, refusing to partake in this vicious training anymore? What if he took a stand against his brother, and _just said no?_

As if in response, Mario's pole scored a scratch on Luigi's arm. Luigi tried to hold it back, but he howled. He averted his eyes from Mario's face, knowing from experience the scowl of disappointment he'd see there.

"Now you're not even looking?" Mario exclaimed in disgusted frustration, throwing his pole violently to the ground. "I swear, Luigi, it's like you _try_ to be this hopeless. How many times have I told you not to take your eyes off your opponent?"

"It's hard to think of you as my 'pponent, Mario." Luigi frowned. He wasn't even sure what that word meant, but he associated it with "bad guys" and "enemies"—after all, wasn't that why they were practicing? In case they had to fight bad guys? So he was supposed to pretend Mario was the bad guy? But…he couldn't. Mario was tough, and sometimes he was mean, but he wasn't _bad._ Although, judging from the merciless way he'd fought today, the younger brother guessed _Mario_ had no problems imagining _Luigi_ as the bad guy.

Luigi stuck his thumb in his mouth, consternation crossing his features. His arm _hurt!_ If this was just practice, why did Mario always have to hurt him for real? And anyway, he didn't think normal kids had to train like this. When he had casually mentioned the training in conversation with a classmate in his kindergarten class, she had just stared at him blankly and Luigi had quieted down, realizing that not every five-year-old went home to neverending sparring matches, hand-to-hand training, and weapons combat.

Most kids watched T.V. and colored and played with toys. But not him. Not the freak Mario brothers. Luigi watched his brother pick up the bamboo rods and place them back in their cases for another day. He had always known they were different, but he had assumed it would be a good kind of different. He had thought that they were special, destined for greatness. Mario looked unassuming and pudgy, even shorter than him—which was saying something—but he had a core of steel and a seemingly boundless supply of endurance, stamina, strength, and energy. Mario was a true force to be reckoned with, but his appearance never suggested it, meaning he'd always have the element of surprise on his side. With a combination like that, Luigi'd bet his two front teeth that Mario would win any fight he entered. So maybe one day he would be great.

_But not me,_ thought Luigi, pouting. _'Cause I don't like to hit Mario, and—and—_

"It hurts!" Luigi finally burst out, knowing that he was whining and Mario didn't like that, but unable to contain himself any longer. He held his arm out in front of him so that Mario could examine the damage. Only then did he notice that the cut had drawn blood. At the sight of the red stuff shining on his skin, tears started rolling down his cheeks.

Mario finally bothered to look at his brother. He stared, unimpressed, at the small nick he had given Luigi—it looked a lot worse than it actually was. Luigi's sobs slowed as he registered the utter lack of concern on Mario's face and the thick smearing of annoyance and scorn. Luigi used his unhurt arm to drag his sleeve over his eyes and across his nose. He was remembering, too late, that the only thing Mario hated more than a whiner was a crybaby. He sniffed. And the only thing he hated more than a crybaby was a whiny crybaby.

"I'm sorry, Mario," he whimpered softly, gulping back more tears that threatened to erupt.

Mario didn't reply. Teeth gritted and face taut, he turned without a word and stalked to the bathroom, waves of disgust emanating from his body with every step. Luigi was surprised when he returned with the medi-kit they kept in the medicine cabinet.

"Sit," Mario ordered harshly, pointing at the sofa and Luigi hurried to obey, tripping over his shoelace in his haste. Picking himself off the floor, he scrambled to the sofa and practically launched himself onto the plushy cushions, again not meeting Mario's gaze.

Mario didn't remark on Luigi's clumsiness. Instead, he just rolled up red sleeves and yanked Luigi's injured arm closer, taking a few moments to examine it. Then he opened the medi-kit and grabbed a bag of cotton balls and a bottle of alcohol.

Almost before Luigi knew what was happening, Mario had unscrewed the cap from the alcohol, doused a cotton ball, and directly applied the drenched swab to his wound. Luigi sucked in his breath again, biting his lip and using all his willpower not to cry out. He couldn't help his eyes watering, though, as his arm felt like it was on fire! Mario pressed the cotton ball down on every inch of the cut, effectively staunching the bleeding but searing Luigi's skin in the process.

Mario's eyes met Luigi's watery ones unsympathetically. "Don't be a baby. This'll kill all the bacteria and prevent an infection."

Luigi nodded miserably, wishing that Mario cleaned wounds in ways that didn't hurt so badly.

Mario sighed, finally finishing with the alcohol treatment and swiftly wrapping a tight bandage over the cut. "See, it's over. That wasn't so bad," he told Luigi gruffly, his face softening just a bit. But after a moment, he added, "You're lucky I did that for you. If you're stupid enough to get hit like that next time, you're on your own. You're not a baby."

Mario abruptly left, disappearing down the hall and into his room, and in a few moments Luigi could hear several thumps and thuds, the sound of Mario training alone. Luigi winced as he heard a particularly loud smack. He was glad that the hit had landed on some unfortunate punching bag or dummy and not on him.

He drew his knees up to his chest, feeling very much like crying again. If Mario had a core of steel, then Luigi had a core of jello. It just wasn't _fair!_ Why couldn't he go outside and play and make friends like everyone else? Why couldn't he spend his childhood learning to ride a bike or fly a kite or fish? Luigi _hated_ fighting. Especially against Mario, who was stronger and faster and never relenting.

Despite himself, a sob managed to escape his lips and he shut his eyes, hugging his knees tighter. _Mario's right. I'm pathetic. And I cry too much, and…and I'm all alone! And I'm scared!_ Luigi balled up his fists as waves of loneliness attacked him, as they usually did when he least expected it.

_"You're not pathetic. And you're not alone. I'm here. Dry your tears."_

Luigi was startled out of his sobs. He looked wildly back and forth. The voice had sounded like it was whispering in his ear, right next to him, but he could see no strange intruder. "Am I going crazy?" he wondered aloud, before another, more frightening theory occurred to him, making his heart leap into his throat. "Or are you a g-ghost?"

The chuckle sounded from all sides of him, somehow physically pressing him deeper into the security of the sofa, but it was not mocking or malicious laughter. Instead, it wrapped around him like a comforting blanket. Luigi had squeezed his eyes shut, but he now opened one and then the other cautiously.

_"I am a friend, Luigi."_

A friend…! Really? Luigi was afraid to trust this, tempering down his happiness with logic. It was too good to be true. It had to be a dream, or some kind of crazy hallucination. Maybe Mario would know what to do. He pushed himself up off the couch and plopped to the floor.

_"Are you sure you want to disturb Mario while he's in the middle of training?"_

Luigi stopped, glancing fearfully at the door where he could still hear Mario hard at work. He scratched his head, admitting, "No…no I don't."

He crossed his arms, disappointed now. "Why does my only friend have to be _invisible?_" he muttered.

_"Because you just have all the luck, kid,"_ the voice drawled dryly. _"Now, listen. If you let me, I can help you match Mario, maybe even beat him."_

Luigi blinked, absurdly wanting to laugh. Had his invisible friend even _seen_ Mario? Well…maybe not. Luigi wasn't sure that disembodied voices could see. After a moment, Luigi shook his head. _Are you listening to yourself? You sound nuts. You _are _nuts._ "This is…this is impossible," Luigi said, looking all around because he had no idea where to focus. "And it's especially impossible for me to get the best of Mario."

_"But it isn't. You're strong, Luigi."_ The voice was gently confident, and despite himself, Luigi found himself listening, addicted to the quiet assurance and encouragement. _"You're a Mario too, after all. Mario deserves to be paid back for what he did to you, and that will motivate you. With just a little work, you can give Mario a run for his money." _There was a chuckle, and Luigi wished he could sound half as confident and proud. _"Have at him."_

Luigi tested the phrase, giggling a little at its bizarre wording. "Have at you!" He tried to sound poised and self-assured, but the tone was so foreign that it sounded like bad acting, like he was playing dress-up with his voice. He collapsed into laughter, imagining what Mario would think if he really _did_ somehow get good enough to win one of their sparring matches. "Have at you," he whispered again, still smiling. He liked it.

The voice was, quiet, serious, thoughtful. Luigi almost didn't catch the murmur.

_"Excellent…"_


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Mario and Luigi crouched behind the scratchy bushes, assessing the looming dark fortress in the not-so-far distance.

"Wow! Can you believe we made it all the way here?" Luigi exclaimed, wiping the hair that was plastered to his forehead, darker than usual and matted with sweat. "Bowser really went all out this time, huh?"

Mario shushed him impatiently. "Don't start celebrating. It's not over yet! We'll congratulate ourselves when that overgrown lizard is toast and the Princess is safe and sound. Now, focus and help me scan the perimeters. I only see two guards. See any more from your angle?"

Luigi craned his neck, squinting his eyes to check from every possible slant in his line of vision. "Nope," he told Mario, shrugging. "Guess Bowser didn't really think we'd make it this far. And I can't say I blame him! All those enemies we had to fight…and I still can't believe he planted a Piranha Plant forest for us to cross." Reminded of the reason he could feel the wind ruffling his hair, he turned sullen. "I also still can't believe a Piranha Plant _ate_ my hat."

Mario rolled his eyes. "You'd better just be glad it didn't eat _you._ You've got plenty of hats at home, so quit your whining and let's go!"

"But I can't!" Luigi's hands suddenly started shaking, his voice turning high and panicky. "I-I can't go into the final battle, against _Bowser,_ without my hat. He'll skin me alive!"

Mario raised an eyebrow.

"It was my _lucky_ hat!" Luigi turned away, knowing Mario wouldn't understand. Mario had never understood him. His friend, the one who called himself Mr. L, was the only one who did. Mr. L had remained a constant companion throughout Luigi's best moments and his worst, always ready with a helpful bit of advice, or a snarky comment, or even just a silent but perceptible comforting presence. When he was younger, he had coped with Mr. L having no actual visible or corporeal body by associating Mr. L with his fuzzy green blanket, carrying it around everywhere with him. Even though it was silly, Luigi still felt a need to keep something physical with him to feel like Mr. L was really there with him. As he grew older, he had replaced the blanket with his hat…and now he didn't have it.

_Look at me,_ he thought. _Here I am, a grown man depending on an imaginary friend._

_"I'm not imaginary,"_ came Mr. L's smooth voice. _"And I'm still here. You can do this, Luigi."_

Luigi felt a surge of gratitude, and he looked at Mario. "Okay, let's go!"

Mario shrugged, not questioning the sudden change of heart. Sometimes Luigi was just like that…that's what made him Luigi. The brothers made short work of the two koopa guards with swift punches and kicks and didn't waste any time pushing open the heavy double doors.

Mario went in with his fists raised…but the room was dark, and cold—and empty.

"Huh?" asked Luigi, bounding in behind his brother. "Where're all the torches? The fire? Where are the traps and the enemies?"

Mario shrugged, though he looked uneasy as well. If there was one thing they knew about Bowser, it was that he was flamboyant in his love of atmosphere. Dark reds and oranges were his style, with fire everywhere. This dank, drab room held none of Bowser's usual flair. Looking around, Luigi and Mario couldn't even spot one soldier or obstacle, when usually his castle was swarming with them. It was like the place was deserted.

"They are _here,_ aren't they?" Mario asked, a hint of doubt creeping into his voice for the first time. "Bowser _is_ holding Peach here. He has to be. We worked so hard to get here…"

Luigi, too, wondered if they had been sent on a wild goose chase. He looked at Mario in concern, knowing that if all that hard work had been for nothing, and they were still no closer to finding Peach—to find that out _now, _after he thought he had been so close—it would crush him. _Oh no. Poor Mario._

Mr. L snickered. _"Poor Mario? Are you kidding? The guy deserves to be taken down a peg or two. 'Sorry, Mario, but the Princess is in another castle'!" _he hooted.

"That's not funny," Luigi said, so cross that he accidentally spoke aloud.

"You're right," said Mario. "There's nothing funny about this." With that, the portly plumber began to bound up the stairs, resolutely determined to tear this fortress down brick by brick if he had to. Luigi followed him, unnerved by the echoes their footsteps made in the empty corridors.

The many portraits of Bowser on the walls seemed creepier in the gloom. Many doors they passed were ajar, and Luigi saw many bedrooms with beds unmade and papers askew, but with the unmistakable musty feeling of abandonment. It gave him chills, as if the koopas had left their bedrooms fully expecting to return and then—they'd never come back. Some rooms unmistakably belonged to Bowser's koopalings, discernible by childish drawings and toys, and though those brats had given Luigi and Mario nothing but grief time and time again and Luigi wasn't particularly fond of them, they _were_ just kids. To see their rooms abandoned gave him a sick, eerie feeling and he hoped that they were all right.

Suddenly, Mario stopped. Luigi, not expecting this, bumped into him and started to apologize, but Mario didn't even admonish him to watch where he was going. He just stared downward. Luigi followed his gaze and froze as well. The door they were looking at was closed, but there light shining from the slit underneath. _Light!_ So the castle wasn't completely deserted then.

Mario took a deep breath, bracing himself for whatever he might see. He was surprised by Luigi placing a supportive hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Luigi's small smile and he gave a curt nod of acknowledgment and pushed the doors open.

Torches flickered from sconces on the wall, illuminating a thick red carpet with gold trim leading to an empty throne with skulls at the end of the armrests. Yes…this place screamed of Bowser, all right. But Mario had eyes for none of that, for right next to the throne was a rusty cage, just big enough for one prisoner with flowing blonde hair.

Mario took a step forward, his eyes not leaving the Princess. Her face was smudged with filth and her pink dress torn, but she seemed otherwise unharmed. She was unguarded and, crossing her arms, just looked bored and mildly annoyed.

"Princess," he said softly, disbelievingly. "Is that really you?"

Peach's head whipped around and her eyes lit up. She grasped the bars of the cage, pressing her face against them. "Mario! Oh, thank goodness! I thought you'd never get here!" She tilted her head. "Who's that you brought with you?"

Luigi looked back and forth, expecting to see someone else, but he quickly realized that he was the one she was referring to. "Really, Peach? I'm Luigi!"

"Oh!" Peach tossed her hair. "Well, you can't blame me. My vision's poor after having been stuck in this dark place for long. And you're not wearing that distinctive hat!"

Mario started to run to Peach's cage, but Peach held out her hand in warning. "Wait, Mario. Don't get too near my cage. If you step on the wrong brick you'll set off a trapdoor, and—"

She was interrupted by a set of footsteps that made the ground rumble. Unmistakable. Mario cracked his knuckles and his neck and settled into a fighting stance, seriousness settling over his features. He should have known things wouldn't be that easy.

The giant behemoth known as Bowser entered the throne room through a curtain concealing another room in the back. "Peach! I've fetched your ring!" he announced in his gravelly voice. Unsurprisingly, Peach turned her head away with her nose in the air and a little "hmph!" but that didn't seem to faze Bowser. He started towards her cage anyway, but then stopped short upon noticing the Mario brothers.

He stood back on his heels, baring sharp teeth in a smile that stretched all the way across his face. "Mario," he said, "I was wondering if you'd make it or not." He winked. "Care to be my best man?"

Mario's face turned as red as his hat. "I won't let you get away with this!"

Bowser shrugged. "It took you quite a while to get here. Have any trouble?" he asked innocently. He assessed the two men. "Looks like you replaced the green plumber with some no-name. Don't tell me my minions actually succeeded in killing one of you pesky Mario brothers!"

"Are you kidding me?" Luigi muttered.

"Afraid not," Mario said to Bowser with a smirk. "Sorry to disappoint, but Luigi is alive and well. And your minions might have been better organized and more concentrated than usual, but we still beat them all, like we always do! And now, as always, we'll defeat _you!_"

"We'll just see about that," Bowser said, still unconcerned. Mario glanced to his right and left. No traps were springing up, no soldiers were attacking, and Peach was right within reach. They had defeated Bowser against much worse odds, and saved Peach through much more defense. This would be…almost too easy. But Bowser was still smiling, confident, and not making a move toward the plumbers.

Mario frowned. Did Bowser know something he didn't?

As if in response, Bowser spread his arms wide. "Go ahead and try to take her, Mario. Who's stopping you?"

_No one…_Mario thought. _I don't trust this._

But Peach was trapped in the cage. He didn't have time to puzzle over things for too long. As he took his first step, Peach called out, "Mario, be careful. Remember what I said!"

Mario did remember. If he took a wrong step, he'd activate a trapdoor. He kept his eyes on the ground, searching for a brick that looked even a bit different from the others. After all, didn't there have to be some sort of signal so that Bowser didn't accidentally set off the trap when he walked around Peach's cage? But all the bricks just looked the same to Mario. Luigi started to follow, but Mario barked at him, "Stay there! You'll just mess things up."

Luigi stood back and sighed. He glanced at Bowser, crossing his arms and tapping his foot.

There was a silence.

"You know you're missing your hat, right?" Bowser asked.

"I _know!_" Luigi threw his hands up in exasperation. "Do I really look _that_ different? Seriously, could I be a superhero and hide my secret identity just by not wearing a hat?"

"Luigi! Will you stop shouting? I'm trying to concentrate!" Mario called back.

Luigi looked down at his feet. He just could never do anything right, could he? "Sorry, Mario."

"Well, I'm so much larger than you," Bowser said to Luigi conversationally. "I can't see you very clearly from up here. Your bright hats make you much more visible and recognizable to me."

Luigi looked up at Bowser, who towered far above him. "I suppose that's true…"

_"Green Thunder,"_ Mr. L said thoughtfully.

_What?_

_ "If you were a superhero. That could be your name. The Green Thunder. And maybe taking your hat on and off _would_ work. It's no more of a stretch than the Clark Kent Superman disguise. I mean, just glasses?"_

Luigi fought off laughter. _I think we've got more pressing things to worry about right now than my superhero name. _He turned his attention back to where Mario was inching towards Peach's cage. And not a moment too soon. The bricks around Peach's cage suddenly fell away, revealing a gaping pit. Luigi could hear snarling and scraping from inside the pit.

"Mario!" Luigi cried.

Mario had, miraculously, grabbed on to the very edge of the ledge that held Peach's cage, but only by the tips of his fingers, and he was slipping. Peach quickly knelt down and, slipping her slim arms through the bars, grabbed a hold of Mario's wrists, trying to keep him from falling, but her strength wasn't enough to support the plumber's weight for long.

Bowser leaned against his throne, a smug grin on his face. "So long, Mario. And I didn't even have to move a muscle."

Luigi sprang into action. Quite literally. He gulped as he saw the great gap he needed to cross in order to reach the ledge where Mario was dangling, but distance jumping was luckily one of his specialties. Taking a deep breath, knowing there was no time to waste, he got a running start and then leaped across the pit, glancing down as he went. He could barely see the creatures in the pit, but he did see pairs and pairs of menacing, glowing yellow eyes.

When his feet landed firmly on the top of Peach's cage, he dropped to his knees and reached his hand down until it was low enough for Mario to reach up and grasp. When Mario did, Luigi heaved, using all his strength to slowly pull his brother on top of the cage beside him.

Mario let out a huge breath. "I owe you one."

Luigi, however, was more preoccupied with the snarling creatures, who had begun to crawl up the walls of the pit and up into the throne room. "Wh-what are those things?"

The scaly reptiles had shells like koopas—but unlike koopas, they crawled on all four legs and growled like mindless beasts, yellow eyes swiveling. They swarmed out of the pit, their steps cracking the brick floor with startling strength. Running around in a wild frenzy, their open-mouthed roars revealed rows of razor-sharp teeth to match their razor-sharp claws.

Luigi caught sight of a pink bow on a monster's head—blood-stained and tattered, but still recognizable as the distinctive bow always worn by Bowser's daughter. At first glance, Luigi had the sickening impression that this monster had eaten the young koopaling, but then he recognized her head shape…the slant of her eyes… Despite her changed appearance, her primitive mindlessness and violence—she had always prided herself on elegance and intelligence—Luigi recognized her.

"Mutated koopas," Mario breathed, just as Luigi came to the same conclusion.

"I'm afraid, boys," said Bowser, "that you two don't have a chance of getting out of here. Koopas!"

The koopas stopped prowling agitatedly and aimlessly around the room and fell silent, turning their attention to Bowser. With clear relish, Bowser pointed at the two plumbers. "Attack!"

Luigi's heart thudded in his chest so hard that he felt his pulse throbbing in his hands, fear threatening to overtake him. "Mario! What do we do?"

As the koopas prowled to the edge of the pit and prepared to spring to the other side, all with an eerie, glazed-eyed singleminded mission, Mario glanced over at Luigi, patting his pockets. "No powerups. No weapons." Then his eyes lit up with an idea. "Luigi, did you bring your plunger?"

Luigi's whole body felt cold. Was Mario serious? Was plumbing really something they needed to discuss at the moment? "Y-yeah, Mario, I did, but—"

"Good! I have mine too." Mario pulled his plunger from its pouch slung across his back.

"Mario…" said Luigi doubtfully. Was Mario losing his mind? Though, Luigi thought, considering that _he_ was the one who heard a voice in his head, he guessed he really couldn't talk.

"We'll use them as weapons, Luigi, don't you see?" Mario held his plunger aloft, his eyes on the koopas. "Remember! Like the bamboo rods."

"Oh!" Luigi nodded, unpacking his own plunger, just in time for the first koopas to launch themselves onto the top of the cage and attack the brothers.

Luigi squeezed his eyes shut at the last second and swung his plunger as hard as he could, and to his surprise, he heard the satisfying smack of wood against shell and the koopa was flung back to the other side. Mario, on the other hand, had smacked his koopa on the soft, unprotected head and was lifting his shoe to crush it…

"Wait! Don't kill them!" Luigi protested.

Mario glanced at him, not lowering his foot. "Eh?"

"Bowser did this to them! But underneath they're intelligent, sentient creatures….Some of them are even kids! We can't just kill them. It's not their fault. They don't have control of themselves!"

Mario sighed as he used his raised foot to kick the koopa into the pit. "Your bleeding heart is going to get you into trouble."

Luigi shrugged and leapt across the gap again, taking the fight to the koopas so they wouldn't be stuck fighting on such a limited space as the top of Peach's cage. Mario quickly followed, and they began knocking the mutated koopas unconscious and throwing them back into the pit.

"This isn't so hard," Luigi said in surprise. "Maybe I didn't need my lucky hat after—augh!" The yellow eyes of the koopa he'd been about to fight had suddenly widened and flared red, a precursor, Luigi now knew, to a pounce and painful bite of his arm. For a moment, his vision faded to a burst of white as pain exploded in his brain. The searing spread quickly, coursing through his entire arm. "Ow—Mario—help!" he shouted, vainly trying to shake the koopa off. The shaking only caused Luigi's skin to shred on the rows of teeth.

"I'm kind of busy right now, Luigi," Mario said through gritted teeth, surrounded by koopas.

_"Luigi."_ Mr. L's voice was sharp and clipped.

_What?_

_"Shove your plunger into its mouth and push it off your arm that way,"_ Mr. L ordered, taking charge in light of Luigi's intense, crippling pain.

Without taking the time to think about it, desperate for the pain to end, Luigi obeyed. He jammed the end of his plunger into the side of the koopa's mouth and pushed with all his strength. The koopa's rows of teeth raked agonizingly down his arm, but at last his arm was free.

Now his plunger wasn't, though. The koopa stubbornly held onto the wooden pole with its hooklike teeth. Luigi ignored the pain in his arm and pulled on the other end with all his might. He needed the weapon desperately. More koopas were crawling toward him, and he was afraid that if they reached him while he had no defense, he'd be bitten again. He shuddered at the thought, not wanting a repeat performance.

"Come on," Luigi grunted, perspiring with effort. "Just let _go_ already!" He was strong, usually much stronger than a koopa, but these koopas appeared to have been bestowed with super strength, because he and the koopa had reached a stalemate. Luigi, looking over his shoulder at the other koopas, gave another solid yank, and this time a loud crack was heard. Luigi watched as half of the plunger handle disappeared into the koopa's mouth and was swallowed with a gulp.

Luigi cradled his half of the plunger. "Mario!" he complained.

Mario defeated two more koopas. "What?" He glanced over and caught sight of the sad sight of Luigi's plunger. "Don't tell me that was your lucky plunger too," he quipped dryly.

"No," Luigi sniffed, his eyes beginning to water. This was the straw that broke the camel's back. "But it was my _favorite!_" he cried.

Mario rolled his eyes.

_"You should punish him,"_ Mr. L said quietly.

_Punish? Who?_ Luigi looked at Mario, confused.

_"No, no. Not him. The koopa. The thing,"_ said Mr. L, disgust clear in his voice.

_But…he didn't do anything wrong. Well, I mean, he didn't know what he was doing…_ But somehow Luigi found himself walking back to the koopa, aware and yet it was as if someone else was controlling his body. He was detached, as if he was watching some guy named Luigi on a screen, as he looked down on the mutant and plunged the jagged wooden end of the plunger back into the koopa's mouth.

"You wanted to eat?" Luigi asked, in a quiet cold voice that was his own and yet was not. "Allow me to fill you up."

The koopa growled stupidly, beginning to chomp on the wood again.

"Have at you," Luigi whispered, and thrust the plunger hard through the koopa's throat and out the back of its neck. The koopa gurgled and choked on its own blood, thrashing and writhing on the floor in the throes of death.

He glanced over his shoulder at the koopas who had been coming to attack him, but something in his eyes sent fear even into the dull minds of the koopas and they scuttled away from him, throwing themselves into the pit by choice.

Luigi blinked, and then stared down at the impaled koopa, stumbling backward in utter dismay. Panic overtook him. What _was_ that? Why had he done that; why had he acted that way? He couldn't explain it, even to himself, because he couldn't comprehend it. Mr. L was echoing his surprise, but Luigi didn't bother to listen. He fell to his knees, feeling claws of guilt digging at his gut.

Dully, he heard Bowser's roar of outrage as Mario defeated the last of the rabid koopas. Bowser tried to swipe at Mario, but he was too bulky to stop the quick, little plumber. Mario leaped over to the cage, and with an expert kick, busted the padlock, freeing Princess Peach.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you!" Peach squealed as she clambered onto Mario's back and held on tight when Mario jumped back over the pit.

"Luigi! Come _on!_" Mario said when he and Peach reached Luigi, and he roughly pulled a still-dazed Luigi to his feet. "That's a nasty bite. We'll have to get it checked out," he remarked as they ran out of the throne room and down the cold, deserted corridors.

They left to the sound of Bowser's wails; he had bet everything that the Marios would be stopped by his surprise koopa army, and he had lost. He was too massive and hulking to catch them before they reached a warp pipe, and now he didn't have any regular, intelligent lackeys to send after the plumbers and the princess in his stead.

ooo

"I should have never let you come with me! I would have done better on my own!" Mario thundered, furious. "Stupid, stupid, stupid! How could you let yourself get bitten? Ugh, you're hopeless. I _wasted_ my time trying to train you. Who knows what kind of weird infections those beasts might have given you?"

Luigi drummed his fingers, his face burning at the scolding. He was a grown man, and Mario was still treating him like a kid. "I'm fine," he mumbled. _Well, not really. But not because of my arm. My arm will heal. But that koopa…that koopa will never heal. I'm a murderer._ But if Luigi tried to talk to Mario about that, he knew Mario wouldn't understand. He'd say that it was justifiable self-defense, and anyway, they were only koopas. They were evil! They were working for Bowser! But they were living, and he had killed one.

"Yeah, well, you'd better hope you stay that way," Mario snapped. "You're a fool, you know that? You know better than to make mistakes like that!"

The toadette nurse who was rubbing salve on the bite seemed to pity Luigi. "You shouldn't be so hard on him, Master Mario," she said. "Raising his stress levels won't help him recuperate."

"Yeah? Well, raising _my_ stress levels is all he ever does! Maybe it's time I returned the favor." Mario left the clinic and slammed the door, hard.

An uncomfortable silence fell. Peach sighed as she looked after Mario, shaking her head sadly, but she turned back to Luigi, gazing at him in concern when she heard him suck in his breath and yank his arm back from the nurse's probing fingers.

"Sorry," muttered the nurse. "I should have warned you that would sting a little. It's alcohol-based."

Luigi was quiet. Then he said, "Don't use alcohol. Please."

"But—"

"It'll speed up recovery and lessen the chance of infection. I know." Luigi's brows drew together, his eyes stormy. "But I don't want alcohol treatment. I'll take my chances with the bacteria."

It was in the nurse's nature to protest, but after looking at Luigi's eyes, she quietly screwed the lid back onto the bottle she'd been using and dropped the subject.

Peach placed her hand on Luigi's unhurt arm, looking at him anxiously. "Are you sure you'll be all right?"

"I'm fine!" he snapped at her, rougher than he intended. Then he sighed, his shoulders slumping. "Sorry, Peach. It's just been…a long day." He smiled at her weakly.

She smiled back. "Not least, I'm sure, because of rescuing me. And as always, I am grateful." She curtsied daintily. "Stay for dinner? I'll have the chefs cook up a special feast, befitting of my two heroes."

Luigi shrugged, glancing toward the window. "Only one. Mario's the hero. At best"—his mouth quirked up into a small grin—"I'm the sidekick."

Peach giggled. "Yes," she agreed. "Mario is the old, crusty, seasoned superhero and you are his young, plucky, freshfaced sidekick. Sounds about right to me!"

She bustled off to organize dinner plans and Luigi watched her go with a smile. Sometimes, in the midst of his stormy life with Mario, Peach was the perfect breath of fresh air and determined, valiant ray of sunshine poking through the almost insurmountable curtain of thick gray clouds. Yes, they did have to save Peach…many times over. But that was fine with Luigi, because as far as he was concerned, Peach had saved him just as many times—maybe in not such a flashy, dramatic way that would gain her recognition and glory, but in small ways that somehow meant even more.

ooo

Dinner with the Mario brothers was usually a loud, rambunctious affair due to their enormous appetites and the fact that food generally loosened their inhibitions the way alcoholic drinks did for most people, making them more talkative, more willing to laugh, more willing to let loose. But the only sounds this dinnertime were the clinking of silverware against plates.

Peach looked back and forth between the brothers, noticing that each kept stealing glances at the other when the other wasn't looking. "Oh dear," she said under her breath. She certainly had her work cut out for her.

"Mario," she said at last, searching for any way to open a conversation. "How's the lasagna?"

"Good," Mario grunted and promptly went back to eating it. Silently.

Well, this might be more difficult than Peach thought. Any mention of lasagna usually got the ball rolling, as it were, but Mario and Luigi both seemed determined to make this dinner as awkward as possible.

"Luigi," she tried, "what happened to your hat anyway?"

"Piranha plant," he answered succinctly.

"Oh my word!" Peach's hand flew to her mouth. "It got _eaten?_"

Luigi swirled soup in his bowl. "Yup."

"Good thing it didn't take your head with it! Well? Go on. I suppose there's a story behind that, isn't there?" Peach prompted, not even having to feign interest.

Luigi shrugged. "I guess," he said reluctantly, uncomfortable with how much he was having to speak. He glanced at Mario, who didn't look up.

"So? Tell!" Peach demanded impatiently.

"Well, Bowser planted a Piranha Plant forest to keep us from getting to you," Luigi explained. "We'd gathered exactly two Propeller Suit powerups, but Mario had the bright idea to eat _both of them…_"

"Nuh ah ah," Mario interjected, meeting his brother's eyes in spite of himself. "That's not how _I_ remember it, little brother. We _had_ two Propeller Suits earlier, when we were crossing that chasm, remember? And you got scared and didn't trust yourself to jump over, so you wasted your Propeller Suit there, and then when we came to the forest, there was only one left!"

"No," Luigi argued. "We had _three_ at the chasm, Mario. We still had two when we got to the Piranha Plants—you _ate_ them both…"

Peach cleared her throat. "Then what happened?"

Luigi glared at Mario, wanting to argue his point, but he instead shifted his gaze to Peach. "So Mario gets another bright idea and gives me a Fire Suit powerup, so that I could blaze a trail through the forest on the land while Mario kept an eye on me from the air."

"Okay…" said Peach.

"But it was a _forest!_" Luigi exclaimed. "I was literally _surrounded_ by Piranha Plants all lunging for me at the same time, and I only had two hands to throw fireballs with. I was barely dodging all those teeth, and one of them almost got my head but I ducked in time. It got my hat, though. After the close call, Mario _finally_ decided to swoop down and carry me the rest of the way over."

"And let me tell you, he is _heavy! _The Propeller Suit nearly couldn't carry us both. It kept dipping," Mario interjected. "Must be all the heroes' suppers you treat us to."

Luigi blushed, putting a self-conscious hand on his stomach. "Like you're one to talk! I felt like my arms were going to be ripped out of their sockets when I had to pull you up from that ledge!"

"Hey, I never denied liking my food." Mario patted his rather round stomach affectionately. Then, his expression deepening into seriousness, he glanced at Luigi and cleared his throat. "Um, how's your arm?"

Luigi looked up in surprise, and for once, it was Mario who refused to meet _his_ eyes, instead of the other way around. "Fine," he finally answered.

Now Mario really did look up, his eyebrow raised and his expression astute. "Really? Look, I won't be mad; I just want to know…"

"I'm not a liar! I _said_ it's fine!" Luigi was taken aback by his own forcefulness, but he didn't apologize. It felt good…right. His assertiveness reminded him of Mr. L more than himself. Now that he thought of it, Mr. L had been curiously silent for quite some time.

_"I'm…here, kid. Just trying to think some things through."_ The voice sounded weary and Luigi was immediately seized with concern. Though why a bodiless voice would be tired, he could not even begin to guess.

_Are you okay?_

_ "Yeah. Like I said, just thinking."_

Luigi pushed back from the table and stood up. He actually was feeling drained himself, all of a sudden, and he accredited it to the bite. It was probably nothing; he just needed to sleep it off, but—Lords, was he tired!

"Thank you, Princess," Luigi said, bowing to Peach. "Dinner was great, as always. I'm feeling a little drowsy, though, so if you'll pardon me…?"

Peach stood too, worry clear on her face. "You've gone pale. You look like you're going to drop soon." She walked over to him and offered her shoulder to support him, and he, suddenly too tired to protest or feel embarrassed, gratefully sagged against her. His limbs felt like they were full of lead. Mario leapt up when he saw just how close to fainting his brother was and he quickly supported Luigi's other side.

"You'll never make it back home in this condition," said Peach. "Why don't you stay here tonight?"

Luigi mumbled something before his head drooped and his chin dropped onto his chest. Peach nearly collapsed under Luigi's entire dead weight.

Mario took Luigi and picked him up, peering down at his face, perplexed. It wasn't like the young plumber to fall asleep that quickly. And he hadn't suffered extensive wounds…Well, there was the bite, but that didn't seem like enough to make him pass out.

"Well, you're right," Peach whispered, lightening the mood. "He _does_ weigh a ton."

Mario gave her a little smile of appreciation and followed her to a guest room. After laying Luigi on the bed, careful not to set him so that he was lying on top of his sore arm, Mario tucked the covers up to his chin. He stood looking at his sleeping brother for a few seconds and then decisively turned and left, Peach shutting the door quietly behind them.

ooo

_"Luigi."_

Luigi turned over in his sleep and mumbled incoherently.

"_Luigi,"_ said the voice, louder, insistently.

Luigi's eyes opened slowly. He could tell that it was dark, but he could see exceedingly well. He yawned, surprised. His eyes never adjusted that fast. "Mr. L?" he mumbled sleepily, remembering that he had woken up because of someone calling his name. He felt warm and comfortable; the covers had been drawn all the way up to his chin, exactly how he liked it. The only problem was—

He frowned. That koopa bite. It was itching madly, the only sensation preventing him from total contentment. Irritated, he tried to scratch through the bandages, but they were too thick, and his fingers didn't soothe the itching at all. The nurse had advised him not to take off the bandages until the next day, so he clenched his fists, tightened his jaw, and tried to ignore the itching, but it grew more and more intense until finally, he couldn't take it.

He nearly ripped the bandages off in unwinding them, but finally the bite was exposed. Luigi stared at it, frozen in shock. No longer did it look like semicircles of teethmarks, but instead, like a light dusting of yellow-greenish scales. The skin was dry and flaky and unmistakably reptilian. Luigi touched his arm gingerly, his mind numb with shock. Was this what an infection looked like?

Maybe he ought to have sucked it up and taken the alcohol treatment.

_"Why? Because great, awesome, big bro _Mario _is always right?"_ Luigi recognized this voice as the same one who'd woken him up and was surprised at the sarcastic resentment coloring the words. In fact, Mario's name had been spit out like a word of profanity.

"M-Mr. L?" Luigi asked doubtfully.

_"He's not available right now." _No, this voice was deeper than Mr. L's. Harsher. _"But I see you're used to hearing voices in your head. You're good at communicating with your mind and you won't go through that pesky phase of denying my existence—that's good. That's very good. Half the battle won right there!"_

"And the other half?" Luigi was trembling, discomfited by the glee in the voice. He felt like there was an ice block in his stomach. He wanted to call out for Mario, but he wasn't sure Mario'd be able to help…and he certainly needed help. Why was he the only one who always had to deal with voices in his head?

_"Mario wouldn't even be _willing _to try to help you, let alone able."_

Luigi's eyes widened. "You're wrong! Mario's always helping people in need. It's what he does!"

_"Yes,"_ the voice agreed musingly. _"People. But to him, you're not a person. You're just an annoyance."_

Luigi tried to swallow, but he found that his tongue and throat were dry as sandpaper. He frowned as he ran his tongue over his teeth. His tongue was coated with a rough texture—scales! Scales that matched the ones on his arm. Luigi was trembling in earnest now, and he felt a scream building up inside him.

_"You know Mario wouldn't come if you screamed, right?"_

Luigi was at a loss for words.

_"He'd ignore you. For your own good, of course. Because you need to be a man and learn how to deal with things yourself. He'd only be annoyed, because his little brother's been an embarrassment of weakness once again."_

Luigi's cheeks heated in anger. He was so sick of being called weak! "I'm not—" he began.

_"I know,"_ the voice cut in smoothly, and Luigi quieted, listening. _"I know you're not. But Mario doesn't."_

The sentence lingered in the silence for many tense moments, and then the voice said, with quiet triumph: _"You hate him, don't you?"_

"Hate…?" Luigi blinked. He had never even considered feeling that way toward his brother. He didn't _hate_ anyone. Sure, he and Mario had a bit of a rocky relationship, but it was the same with lots of brothers.

_"He obviously hates _you. _So why not hate him right back?"_

"He doesn't hate me!" Luigi protested immediately, loyally, but even he could sense the hollowness of his words. The truth was, there were times when he questioned…but still he repeated firmly, "He doesn't hate me. He just—well—that's just the way he is!"

_"He doesn't treat _everyone_ that way. Only you."_

Luigi was silent for a moment. "Everyone treats their family a little different than they treat everyone else."

_"He hates you. He hates the way you look like your mother. He hates how you were the one who killed her."_

Luigi froze, paralyzed and helpless to staunch the stream of propaganda.

_"So he became a hero and left you on the sidelines. He's become legendary, a household name, while few even remember your existence. He has a Princess, while you have no one. Wouldn't your life be better if he just wasn't around? Don't you want to kill him?"_

Luigi's eyes widened. "K-kill…?"

_"Yes, Luigi. Kill. Show him once and for all that you are strong enough. You can defeat him. Kill him. Kill Mario."_

Luigi swallowed. "No! I would never—"

_"Kill Mario," _the voice insisted, seductive, insidious…irresistible.

And Luigi found his will sapping out of him, his body releasing all tension, his eyes glazing over. "Kill Mario," he was shocked and horrified to hear himself repeat, until his brain fogged and dulled, and then he couldn't remember why he had had such a reaction, because it seemed like the most natural thing in the world to say. He had no real comprehension of the meaning or connotation behind the words, only that he liked the rhythm. He liked the sound. He wanted to obey.

"Kill Mario." An image of a man in red came to mind, and wouldn't it be fun if he just played with that man for a little while, just a little while—until he stopped screaming?

"Kill Mario," he said mechanically, and he rose to his feet, yellow eyes shining in the darkness.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Mario stretched, kicking off his shoes and taking off his hat as he prepared to turn in himself. He yawned. He couldn't blame Luigi. Those mutant koopas had been quite the handful. As he was reflecting on those abominations, he heard a creak in the hallway and was immediately alert and already dropping into a fighter's stance. It was late enough that everyone should be in his own quarters, preparing to rest, and Mario knew from experience that Princess Peach's castle was silent as the grave at night.

The uneven, halting footsteps grew louder and louder, and then Mario's keen ears recognized them as Luigi's. Mario relaxed, feeling foolish and paranoid now. His brother was probably going to get a glass of water—or milk, with several of Peach's cookies to go with it, knowing him. Mario's mouth twisted into a small smile. As impractical and infuriating as it was that Luigi had never fully grown up, Mario couldn't bring himself to wish that Luigi would change in any way.

Well, except maybe to be more careful not to be bitten by things with sharp teeth. Mario frowned as he remembered Luigi's close call with the Piranha Plant, and his closer one with the mutant koopa, and the frustration came seeping back into his consciousness, but he took some deep breaths to calm himself. Perhaps he _had_ been too harsh on Luigi—

Speak of the devil. To his surprise, Mario heard Luigi's footsteps stop at his door and then he heard Luigi's distinctive knock—three quick, sharp raps.

Mario opened the door, rubbing bleary eyes and looking up at his brother. His hair was shaggy and unkempt from sleep, falling over his face, and his body language was very unusual—his back was rimrod straight, yet his arms dangled, his fingers tautly curled into claws. A disturbing smile was on his face, and for a moment, Mario wondered if his brother was sleepwalking.

"Luigi?" Mario asked softly. "If you're still mad about my behavior earlier, you have a right to be. Listen, I—"

"Kill Mario," Luigi interrupted, sounding bored of Mario's monologue.

Mario's brow raised so high it disappeared into his hair. "Wha—What?" He was certain he must have misheard.

Luigi slowly raised his head to shift his hair from his eyes. Gleaming yellow eyes with slits for pupils met Mario's perplexed ones, and Mario stumbled backward a little in surprise. He felt goosebumps creeping up his neck as Luigi, with that deranged smile and those _eyes,_ followed Mario into the room, his steps slow and deliberate.

"Kill Mario," he repeated smoothly, his eyebrows coming down as his smile widened.

"Luigi," Mario snapped, taking the authoritative, ordering tone of the older brother automatically, as if Luigi had made a minor transgression and needed to be scolded. "Stop this right now." But he was forced to back away as his brother came closer and closer, muttering nothing but "Kill Mario" over and over and over again.

Mario dodged when Luigi clawed at him, and then ducked under Luigi's long arms, taking advantage of his size to curl into a ball and roll right around Luigi's legs. As soon as he was behind Luigi's legs, he bent his legs and sent a kick right at the tender joint, causing Luigi's knees to buckle. He couldn't believe he was fighting his own brother for his life, but that was the situation, and Mario's brain processed it by numbing his emotions and giving himself entirely to his fighter's instincts.

He pretended that he was merely training Luigi, so that he wouldn't flinch when he punched him so hard in the stomach that he felt the intestines shift, and so that he wouldn't feel guilty when he kicked Luigi in the face and heard his heel crunch the bones in Luigi's nose.

"Luigi!" Mario said, still the calm voice of order, because he didn't know how else to be. "Snap out of it and I'll stop hurting you!"

Luigi sprang back up, the grin never leaving his face even as he wiped the blood flowing from his nose. Then, to Mario's disgust, he licked it from his hand.

"Luigi, please—"

"Kill Mario" was Luigi's only reply before attacking once again.

Mario had always been the better fighter, but he was becoming winded. Luigi had always quit by this point, and Mario had underestimated the level of endurance he would need to win this fight. And to be sure, Luigi had improved. There was more strength behind his punches, strength that even managed to stagger Mario a little, and there was far more accuracy in the aim of his attacks—almost as if he could see in this darkness just as well as he could see in the light.

Finally, out of sheer desperation, Mario clasped Luigi's arms. "Luigi! Come on, snap out of it!" he begged. "This isn't you!"

_How do you know?_

Somewhere deep inside Luigi, he had that thought, and once he had, the fog lifted from his brain and his brother's voice came hurtling in. _This isn't you, this isn't you…_

"What isn't me?" Luigi asked, blinking large blue eyes and wincing as he felt his burning nose. His body felt like it had gone through a meat grinder—or a sparring session with Mario. Those were more or less synonymous.

"Luigi?" Mario asked, staring at him in shock. Luigi rubbed his neck, bemused by how happy Mario looked to see him. Mario _never_ looked happy to see him. Actually, Mario just never looked happy, period.

"Well, yeah, who else would it be?" he asked, a tiny bit cross. He examined his surroundings and looked back at Mario. "Why am I here? Did I sleepwalk?"

"Sleepwalk…? Luigi," Mario said sharply, seizing Luigi's wrist, "do you not remember what just happened?"

Luigi scratched his head, really missing his hat, and feeling tired and cranky. He just wanted to go back to his room, turn out the lights, and snuggle nice and warm under the covers. Mario's tone was rubbing him the wrong way too. Luigi knew he was older—but only by an hour or so. Why did he feel justified in bossing him around so much, especially now that they were twenty-five years old?

"I remember being in bed. Which is where I'd like to return. These stone floors are really cold, and I don't even have my slippers with me."

Mario automatically started to scold, "Stop complaining," but then he shook his head. There were more important matters to discuss. "Luigi, care to explain why you came to my room and tried to kill me?" He met Luigi's eyes levelly. "At least your eyes are back to normal."

"Back to normal? Trying to kill you?" Suddenly Luigi was wide awake and thoroughly alarmed. Thoughts of a warm bed and a good night's sleep flew from his mind, even though his aching body screamed in protest. "I don't—I—" Suddenly, his mouth went dry and he felt sick as he considered another possibility.

_Mr. L?_ He waited, his nerves on fire, a part of him wanting to scream.

Finally, he heard Mr. L's soft voice. _"Yes, kid?"_

_I don't remember coming here and attacking Mario._ There was a pause. Luigi didn't want to have to ask outright, and he knew Mr. L must know what he was thinking, but Mr. L wasn't in one of his forthcoming moods. _Was it...Did you do it?_

Mr. L took an infuriatingly long time to respond, and when he did, his voice was cold, colder than Luigi had ever heard it. _"Why would you think that?"_ he challenged, and Luigi found that somehow the conversation had closed. There was an air of finality.

"Hello? Earth to Luigi!" Mario said, waving his hand in front of Luigi's face and Luigi jumped, startled.

"Huh?"

Mario sat down on the edge of his bed, exhaustion running rampant on his features. "I hate it when you do that."

Luigi flinched at the word 'hate,' a knee-jerk reaction causing him to fling back, "Well, _I_ don't like it when you tear me away from my life and friends and trap us in another…dimension, but you don't see me complaining!"

Mario swallowed. "Luigi, that isn't fair."

"What isn't fair is that you were drunk all the time and you played video games all day, and somehow, I have to pay the price for the rest of my life for your little bout of depression! News flash: Mario—I lost her too!" Luigi bit his lip, but didn't back down. Mario had never said it flat out, but Luigi knew Mario blamed him for their mother's death. He was convinced that their mother would have lived through one birth, but the strain of a second delivery, one hour after the first, had proven fatal. Since they had spent their entire lives orphans—in the custody of old Mrs. Sheriwood, who had spent most of the time napping and mainly left the children to their own devices—Luigi had, of course, wondered 'what if' several times. But he could not say he _missed_ his parents; after all, how can one miss what one has never had?

Apparently Mario could. He walked around with a gaping void in his soul, almost obsessively asking Mrs. Sheriwood about them, what they had been like, what kind of foods they had liked, what kind of hobbies they had enjoyed, what kind of jobs they occupied, and generally what kinds of lives they had led. And why Mrs. Sheriwood was the one who had been chosen as their benefactor. Frustratingly, he had discovered few answers from the batty, kind-natured but absentminded Mrs. Sheriwood, but he had imprinted his own fantasies on his vision of his parents, glorifying them on pedestals of extinguished potential.

As a teenager, Mario had spent a lot of time sunk in a deep depression, lethargic and overwhelmed with the typical teenage crises that he had had to muddle through without any guiding forces. He had idealized their parents, and so he always thought, when anything went wrong in his life—If only Mom and Dad were here, they'd know what to do. Things would be different.

At this point, it was actually Luigi who'd had to take charge; he had always coped with the loss of their parents much better than Mario had. To be fair, though, he doubted he would have emerged from those turbulent teenage years unscathed if it hadn't been for Mr. L's constant reassuring presence.

Mario averted his face from his brother, and when he spoke, his words came out muffled, but rather than address the subject of his mother, he instead touched on their impromptu journey to the Mushroom Kingdom…and subsequent abrupt farewell to the world they knew, forever. "How was I supposed to know that that weird video game would open up a portal between our world and this one? How could I have known?"

Luigi shrugged. "Maybe you didn't know." He frowned. "But if you had known that you would suck us away from a life of debt and responsibilities, you still would have done it. You just couldn't deal."

Mario stared at his brother, unaccustomed to such downright nastiness. "Luigi," he finally said, "I think we both just need some sleep." He caught the glint of fear in Luigi's eyes and, horrible as it might sound, he relaxed. This was the Luigi he was used to dealing with. The fearful one who needed his guidance, and as always, he was happy to give it. "You'll be fine," he told Luigi softly, gently ruffling Luigi's hair. "Hey, it's been a long time since I could do that," he added with a small smile, "since you're always wearing that hat."

Luigi smiled back. "I just wanted to be like my big brother."

Silence stretched between them, long and awkward, neither wanting to be the one to break it.

Finally, Luigi cleared his throat. "M-Mario?" he began hesitatingly, twisting the bottom of his shirt with his hands nervously. "What if I go crazy again?" He shook his head, rejecting the idea. "Mario, I don't want to go crazy," he said fervently.

"You won't," Mario said with that same easy confidence that Luigi always envied.

"But what if I do?"

"Then…" Mario smiled slightly and tousled Luigi's hair a second time, this time in a final, dismissive sort of way. "You can count on your big brother to set you straight, just the same as always."

Luigi studied Mario's face, trying to detect any hint of doubt. Finding none, he nodded. "Well then, good night, Mario."

"Sweet dreams, Luigi."

Luigi shuddered. He rather wished for no dreams at all.

ooo

Back in bed, Luigi closed his eyes, but no sooner had he than he heard Mr. L grumbling about something.

He yawned, beginning to ignore the slight stirrings, but a strong undertone of confusion and despair was bursting through his mind and he knew that Mr. L's presence was a part of this mystery too powerful to ignore.

Whispering in the darkness as he had with his pal so many times before, he asked, "What is it?"

_"Nothing."_

Luigi sighed. He would rather not, but if need be, he could play this game all night. "Not nothing. I know better than that. You're in my head, remember?"

Mr. L was quiet. _"Or maybe you're in mine."_

Luigi felt deeply frightened for some reason by the simple words, but he had become quite adept at swallowing down his fear. He had so many fears that it was a necessity for him; otherwise, he'd go insane. "Who _are_ you, anyway? We've known each other for twenty years now, and I still don't really know that much about you."

At that, Mr. L chuckled. _"What's to know? I'm Mr. L, and I'm your friend."_

"Yeah, yeah, I know all that." Luigi waved the words away. "But why don't other people have friends like these? And why me? Why did you choose me?"

Mr. L tutted. _"I didn't choose you, Luigi. Destiny paired us. And as for no one else having friends like me, well, how do you know that they don't? Have you ever told anyone about me? Perhaps everyone has a friend like me and they keep it secret for fear of looking crazy. The best-kept secret in the world, and also the most needless."_

Luigi considered this, intrigued by the idea. All it would take to expose the secret would be for one courageous person to take the first stand and admit to having a person in his head. Then everyone else would feel comfortable admitting it, and everyone would realize that it wasn't insanity after all…or perhaps, the entire world was insane.

"But do you have a life of your own?" he pressed. "A family? Do you have a body out there, somewhere, and for some reason we're just…I dunno…telepathically connected or something?" Luigi's head was starting to hurt. He yawned again. He was too tired for this conversation. "Who even named you Mr. L?"

_"Kid."_ Mr. L sighed. _"You should stop asking so many questions. It's dangerous."_

Luigi frowned. A threat…or a warning? Or both?

_"You need sleep, Luigi. Rest. We'll talk more in the morning, when we're both…both feeling better."_ For the first time, Luigi heard the strain in Mr. L's voice and realized that Mr. L must feel just as drained and exhausted as he did.

"Okay." Luigi had no more strength to protest. His eyes drifted shut and he relaxed into his pillow.

As if on cue: _"You failed to kill Mario."_

Luigi's eyes flew open, his entire body tensing. The darker, harsher voice was back, grating against Luigi's mind like metal scraping against metal.

"That's because I don't want to," Luigi replied in what he hoped was a cool tone, even though his heart was thundering in his ears and a cold sweat had broken out over his body.

The voice hissed, and Luigi felt a flash of triumph. This was the first time the voice had sounded ruffled or frustrated. A small victory, perhaps, but small victories would eventually lead to the ultimate one—banishing this voice from his head and his life completely, and preserving his sanity, and keeping him from becoming a murderer—

_"You're _already _a murderer,"_ the voice wasted no time in pointing out spitefully, no longer pretending to be sympathetic and on his side. _"Remember the koopa?"_

Luigi's stomach churned. He pulled the covers over his head and squeezed his eyes shut, trying his best to ignore the voice.

_"That koopa was innocent. Your brother is not. Killing Mario shouldn't be too much of a stretch for you. Kill Mario."_

There was no reaction from Luigi.

_"Kill Mario."_

Silence.

_"Kill Mario!"_ The order was loud, forceful, and insistent, and it boomed through the room, making the walls tremble with its fearful intensity. But Luigi willfully ignored these attempts at hypnosis. He was ready, expecting them now, and so he was prepared with a sort of mind shield. The voice quieted.

Luigi stayed guarded for several minutes, breathing hard in the darkness. Then, just as he had been lulled into a false sense of security—just as he was finally, _finally_ allowing himself to drift off into sleep, the voice cleverly changed tactics.

_"Kill Peach."_

"What?" Luigi gasped, forgetting in his surprise not to react. He quickly tried to shield his mind from the voice's hypnotic tendrils, but the voice had already delightedly found a foothold and was infiltrating Luigi's mind with every passing second.

_"Kill Peach."_

"No! No…" Luigi protested, grasping his head in his hands, but the fog began to overcome his brain once again, and his fingers slackened and his arms fell limply back to his sides.

_"Kill Peach."_

"Kill Peach," Luigi murmured, closing blue eyes and opening yellow ones. He dragged himself out of bed, accidentally ripping large holes in the sheet with claws that had newly sprung from his fingernails. He felt a pinch on his bottom as he slowly made his way to the door and soon he could feel something growing from him, tearing open the seat of his pants. It wasn't long before he heard a tail trailing behind him on the floor. The new nerves on his tail were an odd sensation, and the extra weight slowed him down just a little bit, but he felt no surprise over the new appendage. His mind was consumed with only one directive: Kill Peach.

He found the princess's room with ease; it was hard to miss the heart-shaped doorway with intricate pink and gold designs bordering it. He slipped through the open door, slithering like a snake, his muscles tightly coiled, every movement accurate and precise and aided by his night vision.

He heard the princess shift in her sleep and murmur Mario's name. For some reason, this made his lip twist in the beginnings of a snarl. He calmed himself as he stalked to her bedside on all fours, no desire clearer in his mind than the need to make her stop moving, and stop murmuring Mario's name, altogether. In fact, he wanted to stop her doing…anything at all.

He reached up a clawed hand and forcefully clapped it over her mouth and nose, never minding the tips of his claw poking into the tender flesh of her cheek and drawing blood.

Peach's eyes flew open and stared into the beastly yellow eyes in shocked silence. Luigi cocked his head, watching her curiously despite himself. Then she started thrashing and kicking in earnest, shrieking against his hand, unsuccessfully trying to bite his palm, and then even desperately licking his palm in an attempt to get him to let go. Luigi reacted to none of this, watching with dull delight as Peach's movements slowed and began to peter out and her face slowly but surely started to turn a light shade of sickly blue.

With the last of her strength, Peach reached both her hands to Luigi's and clawed at it, attempting to pry it off, but it was no use. Luigi stared at her, intrigued. Why did she keep fighting, even though it was pointless? Why didn't she give up? She was weak, defenseless, and pathetic. Killing her was almost too easy. But there was a certain admirable strength in the fact that, even against insurmountable odds, she would keep fighting until her very last breath.

"Hold it right there!"

Luigi turned to see a scowling Mario in the doorway. Too quickly for his brain to process, his vision abruptly filled with the bottom of Mario's shoe as Mario launched himself at his brother and planted a firm flying kick in his face, knocking him off of Peach.

"Luigi, stop this! You don't want to hurt anyone. I know you."

Shoulders pinned beneath Mario's hands, Luigi didn't look particularly perturbed. He hissed, a forked tongue snaking out of his mouth and flicking his brother's face.

Mario gazed at Luigi's appearance with horror. His eyes were drawn in particular to the culprit of this entire mess, the koopa bite, which had spread into some strange scaly skin. Now Luigi's face was twisting into an ugly, striking, animalistic snarl and Mario shuddered. It was as if he wasn't seeing his brother at all, but…a koopa.

Luigi looked like an unnatural blend of human and koopa, inheriting the worst traits of both. He was a monster, plain and simple.

Luigi used the muscles in his tail to push his body up, overpowering Mario and brushing himself off as he peeled himself off the ground.

"What has gotten into you?" Mario huffed. He'd been thrown against Peach's nightstand and he struggled to his feet, glancing at Peach. The color had returned to her face, though she was a bit paler than usual as she watched Luigi, and she was breathing properly.

"Kill Peach," said Luigi, and Peach's eyes widened.

"L-luigi?" she whispered tremulously.

"Stay back, Peach!" Mario placed himself between the monster Luigi and the princess, still not quite able to believe the situation. He had always felt a responsibility to protect his little brother….Never did he think he'd have to protect himself or anyone else _from_ Luigi. Because of the death of his parents, he supposed he had always been a bit overly protective of Luigi; if it hurt so much to "lose" family he'd never even met, he didn't think he could stand losing the one family member he had left in the world.

Luigi lunged at him, catching Mario's every punch, anticipating all his moves and being just a bit swifter, and…his strength. His strength was incredible! Mario was breathing hard within minutes. Luigi slapped Mario back and forth with powerful swipes of his tail, leaving Mario with no way to escape. Then he shoved his palm into Mario's nose, sending Mario flying and smacking right into the wall. Mario, winded, struggled in an attempt to prop himself back up, but his arms were shaky and would not support him. The crumpled plumber could only watch helplessly as his seemingly undefeatable brother stalked toward him with a look of greedy anticipation.

Then, all of a sudden, there was a loud crack, and Luigi's expression drained from his face as his legs folded up underneath him and he landed heavily on the ground, facedown. Peach was behind him, breathing heavily, a look of serious determination on her face. She held the lamp from her nightstand aloft as she nudged Luigi's leg with her foot, ready to hit him again if he so much as twitched, but he remained perfectly still.

Peach exhaled deeply as she dropped the lamp that she had ripped from the wall in desperation at that last moment. "Oh, Luigi," she said with a terrible sadness, kneeling and touching the back of his head, drenched in blood. A sob escaped her throat, and her voice cracked as she apologized. "I'm so sorry."

Mario managed to get up, despite the severe beating he had taken, and he looked seriously at Luigi's prone body, his mind racing. "He…he's turning into a koopa," Mario stated. It was obvious, but a bitter pill to swallow. He massaged his temples as if the entire situation was giving him a headache. "This is all my fault."

Peach shook her head adamantly, still kneeling at Luigi's side. "It's Bowser who's to blame!"

Mario knelt down next to Luigi and carefully turned him over. Moonlight from the window spilled over his slack face, illuminating the monstrous features in silver glow, but also highlighting the peaceful serenity of unconsciousness. In sleep, he almost looked like Luigi again. The features that were still Luigi's were startling to pick out in this new koopa-like carcass, but they were there, in unsettling clarity.

"If we were still in Brooklyn," Mario told Peach gruffly, his voice catching, "Luigi would have never even heard of koopas, much less become one. He would have gotten to live a normal life. It's my fault we came here, to the Mushroom Kingdom."

Conflicting emotions battled on Peach's face, but after a moment she put her hand over Mario's and said softly, "It's no one's _fault._ It's to your _credit._ It's a good thing you're here, because we all needed you. Not least because you seem to make it through everything. And you always will make it through, even this."

Mario could not bring himself to have such optimism. After all, what if…? But he didn't allow himself to think any further. He couldn't. He picked up Luigi's limp body, wondering what the future held. "I certainly hope so."

ooo

Mario could practically _feel_ the dark circles forming under his eyes, but he knew he must remain vigilant. He was sitting at Luigi's bedside, pinching himself, biting his lip, doing anything he could to stay awake even though it was approaching the early hours of the morning. He couldn't afford to miss Luigi waking up, because after all, Luigi was his responsibility…and his family, of course. His only family.

Just as Mario started to nod off, he heard the covers shifting and his brother's familiar voice uttering nonsensical sleepy moans. Mario snapped to attention and watched as Luigi opened his eyes. His stomach relaxed and he let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding when he noted their color: sky blue, matching his.

Luigi's hands had been yanked over his head and fastened together, wrists touching, and then the rope had been tied to the headboard of the bed. Likewise, his feet were restrained, and his waist was bound. As soon as he realized that he'd been trussed up, he started to struggle, panic rising in his eyes and nearly culminating in a shout of alarm—

And then he noticed Mario.

"Mario?" First, there was confusion and then relief. "Am I glad to see you! Why am I tied up? And why does my head hurt so bad? Well, it doesn't matter, can you get me out of here?"

Mario ignored the tugging his heartstrings felt at the innocent questions, the large fearful blue eyes, the trust. He turned his face away, not wanting Luigi to see how it was eating away at him that he had been forced to these measures—keeping Luigi captive. "I'm sorry, but I just can't do that. You're too dangerous."

Luigi sucked in his breath, the implications of this sinking in. "I went crazy," he said unhappily. It wasn't a question.

"And, as I promised you, I took care of it." Mario thought for a moment, and then amended, "Well, actually, I suppose Peach really took care of it."

"Peach? She's involved now too?" Luigi looked down, mortified. He hadn't wanted Peach to see him in that state. What must she think of him, now that she had seen that murderous, uncontrolled rage coming from him? He felt something—a part of him—twitch and thump in agitation against the mattress, and craned his head as best he could to take a look—a tail? Now he had a _tail?_ Luigi's heart sank. Peach must have seen that too. Then a thought occurred to him, most horrible of all. "Did I hurt her?"

"You tried, but…she's a pretty capable woman." Mario chuckled fondly, one of his rare moments of softness. "I think she ended up hurting you more than you hurt her. She's the one who conked you on the head," he explained. "Guess that makes you even?"

"I guess." Luigi couldn't muster up the energy to even cast a weak smile Mario's way. His condition seemed untreatable and unstoppable, and it just seemed to worsen with each episode. What if—what if he succeeded? What if he really did kill Mario and Peach? "What's going to happen?" he whispered, feeling all the color drain from his face. He glanced at Mario, his face turning eerily calm as the obvious solution came to him. Like Mario always said, self-defense was key….Sometimes you've gotta kill _them_ before they kill _you._ "Are you…going to kill me?" he asked, oddly composed.

Mario looked down at his brother in shock. "You're going to be okay," he said sharply.

"Then…am I going to kill you?" Luigi's questions were detached, even asked with an odd little smile.

Mario recognized the signs of Luigi's mind surrendering, searching through all logical outcomes and finding beyond the shadow of a doubt that there was no way to win. But if that was so, they'd find an _illogical_ way to win. Mario was determined. "Now you listen to me," Mario said roughly. "No one is killing _anybody._ We'll find a way through. I promise you. So don't you give up now!"

Luigi fixed his gaze on the ceiling, settling down into his pillow. On a completely different track, he suddenly blurted, "I miss Daisy."

"Daisy?" Mario frowned, trying to remember the name. "One of your girlfriends in Brooklyn?"

"The last one," Luigi said, rolling his eyes. "The special one. The only one I ever said I was 'in love' with. The one I went on and on about marrying one day. Ring a bell? She was kind of important to me."

"It's awful missing someone," continued Luigi dreamily, "but it's even worse not knowing what happened to them. I mean, I'll never see Daisy again. I'll never know whether she moved on from me, if she got married, got a good job, had kids." Luigi gave a strange little bob that Mario realized after a moment was supposed to be a shrug. "Of course, she must've moved on with her life. But she could be dead now, and I'll never even know. Then again, maybe she's not. Maybe she thinks I abandoned her, and maybe she doesn't even care. Maybe she wonders where I've gone, maybe enough to try to investigate. And then maybe she doesn't wonder at all." He laughed, a short, humorless laugh. "Me, I wonder all the time. I run through all these maybes in a cycle and just emerge with the same thing each time—a bunch of unanswered questions. And it's the darnedest thing—I just can't seem to stop." He turned his head and sent a focused gaze at Mario, who got the uncomfortable feeling that Luigi was seeing right through him. "To her, we might as well be dead. And to me, she might as well be. And she won't stop haunting me."

Luigi's eyes in that moment did indeed look haunted, and Mario shushed him, trying to soothe the issues that had started him on such a ramble. "Maybe we will find a way to communicate with that world one day, or even go back. You never know." He smiled weakly, sleep practically beating on the back of his eyes and trying to overcome him. He rubbed his eyes in weariness. "Look, neither of us have had any quality sleep tonight. Let's try to catch a few hours of shut-eye so we can figure everything out tomorrow, okay?"

Luigi may have answered, but Mario was already dozing almost as soon as the words were out, his body relaxing in gratitude. Surprisingly, he didn't sleep for very long. When he awoke, the greyish light of very early dawn was peering into the window. Mario stared at the window, not sure why the sight of it disturbed him so much, and then he noticed that the curtains were fluttering in the breeze. The window was open.

It had been closed when Mario had gone to sleep. Mario's head snapped to the bed, but he already knew what he would see. There was still an imprint where Luigi's body used to lie and the ropes were still tied to the four corners of the bed, frayed endings revealing that they'd been snapped.

"Luigi?" Mario called, knowing he'd hear no answer. He sprang up, hoping against hope that he hadn't gotten far. He checked under the bed, in the closet, and even in the little bathroom. "Luigi?"

He ran to Peach's bedroom to inform the princess of the plumber's escape, but when he got there, he felt his blood run cold. Peach's bedroom was in shambles, furniture and appliances knocked askew in a clear sign of a struggle. Rumpled sheets lay in a heap on Peach's bed, but the princess herself was nowhere to be found.

Mario clenched his fists. He knew that Luigi had taken her…and, seeing as he was a koopa now…Mario even knew where they had gone. He broke out into a full-blown sprint down the hallways and out of the safety of Peach's castle, heading back into the danger of Bowser's. The little plumber was determined to gain both his princess and his brother back…and all before breakfast.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Princess Peach held her head high despite the dread and shame she felt at once again finding herself helpless in Bowser's clutches. Bowser grinned at her little display of bravado and looked proudly over at his newest and most satisfying recruit. The green Mario was his to control and manipulate as he pleased, and finally, he possessed what he had no doubt would be an effective weapon against Mario and Peach—a former comrade, someone whom even the hardened Mario would have trouble fighting.

Peach's expression when Luigi had turned her in to Bowser—one of confusion, anger, disappointment, betrayal, and hurt, all churned onto one deliciously despairing face—had been priceless. Bowser only wished he could have somehow recorded the moment.

"Luigi hasn't and would never join you of his free will," Peach broke into Bowser's gloating thoughts, spitting at his feet in a most unladylike manner. "You don't have charisma, or any powers of persuasion or convincing…you had to resort to hypnosis. He had to become _mindless_ before he would obey you! If you think that's a victory, you're pathetic."

"Why you insolent—!" Bowser began, reaching down to punish her, and Peach ducked her head and squeezed her eyes shut, bracing her body to endure terrible pain.

Luigi laid a clawed arm on Bowser's wrinkled knee. "If you damage her," he said coldly, "she'll become a less effective koopa." He raised his eyebrow at the look of stunned surprise on Bowser's face. "You _had_ thought of that already, hadn't you?"

"I—uh, yeah, of course." Bowser laughed. "What do you take me for?"

"An idiot," Luigi intoned under his breath, and Bowser frowned, muttering. That mouth on the green plumber might be a problem.

Peach gasped. Was it possible that Luigi would turn out to be a better mastermind in villainy than Bowser? Bowser, for all his bluster, was not all that threatening due to ineptitude and a tendency to overlook the obvious in his visions of grandeur, but it seemed that with koopa Luigi at his side as a cold, intelligent voice of reason, he would definitely become a danger.

Luigi took a step toward Peach, and she immediately scooted backward, terrified. But Luigi still seized her wrist, bruising the skin with his tight grip, and brought the dainty hand to his lips in a bold mockery of decorum.

"Your servant, madam," he whispered huskily, pressing his lips to the princess's hand. She watched him, trying not to let the disgust show too plainly on her features, and then her eyes darted back and forth as she tried to locate any means of escape. Suddenly, his yellow eyes flared and turned red as his mouth opened wide, revealing rows of sharp teeth.

Peach, realizing too late what was happening, curled her hand into a fist and tried to yank her wrist out of Luigi's grasp, but her efforts were in vain. The very tips of Luigi's teeth grazed and pricked the white skin of Peach's hand, and Peach closed her eyes, waiting for her fate to befall her.

"It won't be so bad, Princess," said Bowser, "joining us. You might even think it's pretty fun. You'll get to do fun things like killing your lover and infecting your loyal, loving citizens. Look at little what's-his-face," he added, gesturing to Luigi, "looks like he's having a blast."

Peach opened an eye against her will. "You stupid, arrogant _monster!_ His name is _Luigi,_ and joining you—" The fire left her eyes as they shifted to Luigi, and something inside her crumpled. "Joining you would be a fate worse than death," she whispered.

"We'll see," said Bowser, and Luigi began to bring his teeth down hard on Peach's hand.

But he was interrupted by something long and hard hitting him in the side of the head. He snarled, distracted, and turned to look at the offending object.

A…plunger? Luigi rubbed his eyes and looked again to make sure he wasn't seeing things. Perplexed, he picked up the plunger, hefting it in his hands.

"Hey, ugly! Over here!" a voice yelled, and Luigi bared his teeth in challenge.

"Mario!" exclaimed Peach, clasping her hands together in gratitude…and in prayer.

"Mario," acknowledged Bowser with a smirk, eager to see brother pitted against brother.

"Mario." Luigi stretched his fingers, claws clicking together and fixed the plumber with a hateful gaze.

"It's me," Mario declared, nodding at everyone in turn. "And I'm here to retrieve my brother and my princess. I'm not leaving here without them both, safe and sound. So." He cracked his knuckles and settled into a confident fighter's stance, meeting Luigi's gaze head on. "Let's go."

The brothers, who had had similar looks of concentration, assessing each other, both burst from stillness to a flurry of motion at the same time. Luigi, who had been trained from childhood by Mario, now possessed full koopa strength, speed, and agility, but Mario, who had fought Luigi twice after his infection, now had a good understanding of his reptilian fighting style. Neither brother was a clear victor at the outset.

Mario sidestepped a well-aimed swipe of claws and used the opportunity to bring his elbow down painfully on Luigi's outstretched arm. Not to be outdone, Luigi took advantage of Mario's focus on the upper body to use his tail and attack Mario's undefended legs, messing up his footwork and temporarily disabling the techniques Mario favored which relied heavily on good form of the entire body.

Every attack was met with an equally-crushing counterattack, every opening, weakness, and mistake preyed upon mercilessly. The brothers ended up in a struggle on the floor, a tangled ball of hair and claws and teeth, pulling and punching and swiping and kicking at each other in a no-holds-barred brawl.

"Careful! You'll kill each other," Peach cried out in warning.

"Wouldn't that be fantastic," Bowser muttered.

Mario pulled back, though, looking down at Luigi, whose hair was tangled and wild and messy and whose eyes were squeezed shut, and whose breaths were coming heavily. In that instance, all he saw was his little brother, and he pushed himself up, suddenly disgusted with himself for having flown into a brutal fistfight with Luigi.

As Luigi picked himself off the ground and prepared to lunge again, Mario held up both hands in a gesture of peace. "Luigi, I don't want to hurt you. I _don't._" He ignored the fact that Luigi's lip was curling into an ironic sneer. "Please, Luigi. Listen to me!"

"_'Please, Luigi. Listen to me,'_" Luigi mimicked and then spat. "You're a fool, you know that? The only time you say 'please' is when it benefits you. If you think that makes you noble, guess again. And if you think I will listen to you, you've got another thing coming. You've been in power too long, Mario. I'm sick of you, and for that matter so is Luigi."

Mario stared. "But…you're Luigi," he stated, confused.

Luigi rolled his eyes. "Seriously? You haven't figured it out yet? I'm _not_ Luigi. I am the Green Thunder. You may call me," he said with a flourish, "Mr. L."

"Mr. L?" Mario echoed, uncomprehending.

"Yes! Mr. L! I am free at last!" he said in triumph, raising his fists again to attack Mario, and Mario found he had no choice but to block the punches.

Mario watched his brother—or, he supposed, Mr. L—in wonder. If he had not known better, he could believe that Luigi and Mr. L were two separate people with a striking similarity in appearance. His voice was altered nearly beyond recognition—a deep rich baritone timbre to contrast with Luigi's reedy tenor—and his tone was full of easeful confidence that Luigi had always lacked. His fighting had none of the hesitation and second-guessing of Luigi's. Mario kept watching his brother transform into strangers, and all he wanted was his old brother back.

"So you claim to be Mr. L," Mario puffed as he finally landed a hit on Luigi's chin. "Who exactly is that?"

Luigi crossed his arms and blocked a predictable attempted punch to the gut, smirking all the while. "You don't really deserve to know," he said, springing into a backflip over Mario's head. Once he had landed and delivered a sharp jab to the back of Mario's neck, sending Mario sprawling to his knees, he crossed his arms and looked down on him. "Though, I suppose I might as well fill you in before I snap your neck." He paused. "I was…born, I guess…or uncovered one day when Luigi was very young. He was so lonely and so scared that he dug deep within himself and, without knowing it, summoned me. Who am I? I guess I started out as just a part of Luigi, buried deep down inside, brought to life only by his imagination and loneliness. But I developed my own sensibilities and thoughts and opinions…At a certain point, I split from Luigi and became my own person. I was whatever Luigi needed me to be: soundboard, confidant, friend—all to keep a tenuous foothold on the physical world, hoping that I might influence Luigi to become more like me and so, in a vicarious way, live my own life out in the world." Mr. L's voice became wistful, contemplative. "But then, after the koopa bite, I found that many confusing things were happening to Luigi's mind and spirit, and there was so much confusion that I found I could slip into Luigi's conscious mind and control him—at least, for a limited time. Thanks to this strange infection, I'm finally having a taste of owning my own body and living in the physical world! And now that Luigi has become full koopa, his weak mind is so badly repressed that it was a breeze to take over. And now," Luigi said, taking a deep breath at the end of this monologue, "you know that I am Mr. L, and you know what that means. Have at you!"

Mario rolled to the side just in time to dodge Luigi's foot, aimed straight at his head. He was still processing the wild story that Luigi—or the side of him that was "Mr. L"—had told him. Was it possible that Luigi had been so distressed as a child that he had been forced into splitting his personality just to have a friend? And that that personality had developed into a real person of his own and started to prey on Luigi's emotions and insecurities, sucking him dry like an emotional vampire? Most ridiculous of all, Mario was being asked to believe that Luigi would conceal from him that he had another personality in his head, for twenty years. Mario couldn't help feeling betrayed. They were brothers; they were supposed to tell each other _everything_, and that was an extremely big secret to keep to himself for so long. Had Luigi not thought this important enough to tell Mario? Or had he not trusted Mario?

Mario ground his teeth in anger. He was getting slower and slower at dodging blows and sloppier with his mistakes. Luigi was tiring him out, and this emotional gut-wrenching wasn't improving upon matters. He extricated himself from the fight for a second and checked in his pocket, hoping to find a powerup; eating one would give him an advantage and replenish some of his dramatically diminished health. Aha! He came up with the Fire Suit powerup, twin to the one he had given Luigi at the Piranha Plant forest, and he quickly swallowed it, feeling the restored health course through his limbs.

"All right," said Mario. "Ready for Round Two?"

Luigi's face suddenly shifted, and he blinked rapidly. "Mario?"

Mario froze, hope clutching in his chest. "Luigi? Is that you?"

"M-mario," Luigi moaned, holding his head. "I'm trying to fight it, but…but it's too strong!" He dropped to his knees, the pain on his face indicating the terrible internal battle within. "The koopa voice…Mr. L…they both want control, and I—I just want to go home!" he blubbered helplessly.

"I'm sorry, Luigi," Mario said, equally helpless. But while he had Luigi back, at least for a while, he had a question that he found impossible to ignore. "Luigi, who is Mr. L?"

This was the moment of truth, and they both knew it. Mario knelt in front of his struggling brother, sorry that he had to ask anything of him at all, but needing to know the truth.

"He's this voice in my head," Luigi whispered. "Been helping me out for years."

Mario sat back on his heels. So it was true. Furiously, he snapped, "And you never once thought to mention him to me? Never once in _twenty years._ Not even after all this drama with your mind being controlled started happening—not even then did it occur to you—"

"I'm sorry, Mario," Luigi said, hanging his head in shame.

Mario's anger dissipated as quickly as it had come. It was still there, burning under the surface, but a part of him knew he was being hypocritical, so he relented. And prepared to confess something he had thought he would never utter aloud. "Luigi, I don't really have any right to be mad. I mean, I _am,_ but I shouldn't be. Because, honestly, you're not the only one of us with a secret."

Luigi looked up. "What do you mean?"

Bowser roared, interrupting suddenly. "What's this? You two are supposed to be tearing each other to pieces, not having a heart-to-heart." He stomped to the brothers, planning to rip them apart limb by limb—because if he wanted something done right, he'd have to do it himself.

"Cool it, Bowser," Mario said flippantly, and used his powerup to create a ring of fire that shot up to the ceiling and surrounded him and Luigi, a semi-opaque orange curtain through which they could somewhat make out the hazy, flickering figures of Bowser and Peach, although their voices were muffled by the roaring and crackling of the fire. Mario turned back to his brother. "Now, where were we?"

"You had a secret?" Luigi prompted succinctly, staring with clear eyes at Mario, knowing that Mario had not really forgotten.

"Right," Mario sighed. "Well, there's no easy way to say this, so I'll come right out with it. I brought us both to the Mushroom Kingdom on purpose."

Luigi felt like he would fall over, but that would result in serious third-degree burns, so with difficulty, he remained upright. Blinking dizzily, he could only muster one word. "Huh?"

Mario clasped his hands behind his back, not looking directly at Luigi. This was difficult. "I was afraid of losing you. I felt like Brooklyn had nothing to offer us. And then I came across some weird instructions with that old thrift store video game, handwritten instructions, telling you how to play just so, so that you and anyone within a certain distance would be sucked into another dimension, irreversibly, and with the added benefit that you would never die. Sounds crazy, right? Well, I thought so too, but I still followed the instructions, organizing it so that you and I would disappear together, if it worked at all. And maybe I didn't fully believe it would work, but that doesn't matter because it did. And I wanted it to. And I was totally willing to sacrifice your chance at a normal life and separate you from your friends forever, just so that I wouldn't be alone." Mario shut his eyes, guilt ravaging his features. "I wronged you, Luigi. I'm so sorry."

Luigi didn't say anything for a long time. Then, finally, he looked up at Mario with that bizarre calm Mario hated. "You're wrong, though. We can die. We can be injured, we can kill…" He looked Mario in the eyes. "We _can_ die."

"I know that now," Mario agreed. "I think those instructions meant that if we went into the video game, we wouldn't die of old age. So potentially, we _could_ live forever. But we _could_ be killed. However, I spent a lot of time thinking I was invincible. Made me braver." Mario valiantly attempted a smile. "And you've got to admit, it makes life more pleasurable, knowing that we've got all the time in the world."

"No," Luigi disagreed immediately. "Life is precious because one day it will all end, so you have to make each day worth it. And you may draw bravery from thinking you're invincible, but when I am brave, it's because I know life is fleeting, so there's no time to waste on being scared. And if you don't try things because you're scared, you may never get another chance." He shook his head. "But I'm not brave, so I guess my argument is null and void."

"You _are_ brave, Luigi."

"Hm. Maybe sometimes," Luigi allowed. "But not like you. You're not afraid of anything."

Mario crossed his arms. He felt like they were catching up all at once on talks that they should have had over the course of the twenty-five years they'd known each other. "You may have more fears than me, and you may be right that there isn't much that scares me. But there's a difference between fearlessness and courage."

Luigi shrugged. "I don't see how."

"If you're fearless, you never learn how to _overcome_ fear," Mario explained as best he could. "And a little fear is useful, you know. Self-preservation. It keeps you safe, stops you from doing reckless things. Courage is putting your fear aside and doing something even though it scares you. It takes strength to stand up to your fear. In a lot of ways, that makes you stronger and braver than I could ever be. Because you have so many fears, you have to stand up to them every day, and that's amazing. The fears that I _do_ have, I don't have the strength to face. The moment I was made to face them, I _ran away to another dimension. _Luigi, you're the bravest person I know."

"Do you mean that, Mario?" Luigi asked, quiet and serious, and for some reason Mario felt more frightened than he had in his entire life.

But he answered "Yes" at once, without any hesitation.

Luigi stood up, shakily. He knew how to purge the darkness from him once and for all, but it would require strength—and for both Mario and Luigi to face their deepest, darkest fears. He had to let in the voices, both of them, because all that was, really, was breaking open the tightly packed boxes of his subconscious, and letting all the secret parts of him that he had not even shown to himself, for his own sanity, run rampant through his conscious mind.

He understood the truth now. Mr. L, koopa Luigi, and just regular Luigi were all the same person. Three sides of one whole. A dysfunctional trinity. The koopa bite had not changed Luigi into a totally different person; it had just switched off one side of Luigi and turned on another. But the bite wouldn't have had such power over him if he had just been honest with himself from the get go, if he had just acknowledged the darkness within to begin with. There was still time. He could reclaim power over himself.

He cleared his throat and began to state his discoveries aloud, acknowledging them in his soul of souls despite the pain it caused to rip the wall he had so carefully built down to its bare bones. "Mr. L is just…me. A part of me that I unlocked when I didn't think I could handle things on my own. An alterego I created for myself. He's not an outside force, which means I have complete power over him, not the other way around!"

_"Maybe so, but I have gained too much strength now for you to stop me. You can't let go of the only friend who stood by your side for twenty years! You just can't. You're lying if you say I hold no sway over you. I _am_ my own person. You _will_ give in."_

"Yes, Luigi, that's right! Fight it! You can do it!" Mario exclaimed.

Years of resentment and inferiority were taking their toll on Luigi. He laughed, surprised how much the harsh, sardonic tone sounded like Mr. L. "Oh, I can, can I? Now that it suits you, I'm strong enough. Wasn't it you who always called me weak?"

Mario swallowed. He knew he had been hard on Luigi…but he had to be! Just as he had hurt Luigi with alcohol to prevent a worse pain later in the form of infection, so had he struck Luigi—with fists, with poles, with words. Little by little, he had strengthened Luigi's body and spirit, honing his reflexes, and hitting him so that when the time came, he'd be capable of defending himself against truly dangerous people, those who would hit him with the intent to kill. Yes…Mario knew he had damaged Luigi, perhaps irrevocably. But he would rather have a damaged Luigi than a dead one. Couldn't Luigi see—Mario had hurt him to protect him, to save him. Because Mario loved him.

"Luigi…come on!" Mario sputtered, unable for the life of him to say anything like that to Luigi's face. "Are you still on about that?"

Luigi shook his head, still feeling a throbbing in his head because of the resentment for Mario that, no matter what, would probably never be truly erased. He took a deep breath and went on. "Koopa Luigi is also me. With zero inhibitions, yes, but still me. Does that mean that there's really a part of me that wants to kill Peach? Really wants to kill Mario?"

He sensed rather than saw Mario waiting for his answer with bated breath.

Luigi smiled. "Well, yes, I suppose it does. In an abstract way. Don't all people want to strangle the ones they love sometimes? The fact is that there can be no love without hate. The opposite of love is _not_ hate, it's indifference. When I see any old person on the street making a mistake that could devastate his life, I wouldn't care nearly as much as if I saw Mario making a mistake that could devastate his life. I'd be furious—furious enough to want to kill him. Because I love him. And there is such a fine line between love and hate."

He had acknowledged it. He had acknowledged that all three personas were him, and the truth was that none could live without the others. To exist, he would need to always carry Mr. L and the koopa inside him. Always. Which wouldn't be a problem, except that these facets of his personality, because he had ignored them for so long and tried to lock them away, had been exacerbated and changed to malicious forces rather than balancers of his nature. Whenever they resurfaced, it would always be with violence, which meant that as long as he lived, Luigi would remain a constant potential danger to Mario, Peach, and anyone else he loved.

And in that moment he knew what would have to be done. He had always known, really. He looked up at Mario, who was watching him anxiously, and bared his sharp teeth, advancing toward Mario.

Mario, eyes widening, took a step back, but the back of his overalls singeing reminded him that he really had no place to run.

"Luigi?"

Still Luigi drew ever closer, the skin on his face spreading with green scales. Mario's heart sank. Luigi's plan had failed. He had let the voices back in, and they had overpowered him.

As if in confirmation, there came a murmur from Luigi. "Kill Mario."

Mario wrestled with Luigi, mostly trying to dodge Luigi's claws and teeth. His hand started to heat up and glow as he prepared to summon a fireball. He was sorry to use it against Luigi, but if he could perhaps injure an arm or leg, he could restrain him long enough to—

Without warning, Luigi seized Mario's arm and pulled him close. Then, before Mario fully realized what was happening, he pressed Mario's glowing hand flat against his chest, over his beating heart. Mario understood then, and he tried to struggle to pull his hand away, but Luigi's yellow eyes bored impassively into Mario's and his hand held Mario's in a viselike grip.

Mario was helpless to stop the fireball as it formed in his palm against Luigi's chest and fired straight through his heart.

Mario caught Luigi's falling body and held it close to him, not even noticing as his Fire Suit powerup wore off, and with its passing, the wall of fire dissipating. Peach gasped as she saw clearly Luigi's body cradled in Mario's arms.

"No," she squeaked, tears coursing down her face.

Mario's vision was becoming blurry with tears. His head filled with searing pain, almost making him pass out, but he could not—would not—miss any remaining moment of Luigi's fast fading life. He saw the green scales fade from Luigi's skin, the tail shrivel on itself and disappear, the claws shrink to nothing, and the eyes—those dulling yellow eyes—fade to an opaque, glassy blue.

"M…Mario," Luigi whispered. "I'm s..orry."

Mario put a finger to Luigi's lips, horrified when he brought away blood on his glove. "Don't talk," Mario ordered instinctively. It was the only way he knew how to deal with stress concerning his brother. Shock would not allow him to consciously recognize that this was the last time he'd talk to Luigi. "Conserve your energy."

Luigi chuckled weakly, a chuckle that sounded exactly like Mr. L's, and then clutched his chest in pain. "We both know…that's useless advice now…" he murmured. "Listen, I have to tell you…I'm sorry…Sorry I was always such a disappointment…to you."

"Don't think that, Luigi. I'm so proud of you." Mario took a shuddering breath, but managed to smile for Luigi's sake through his tears. "So proud."

"Sorry I went crazy…"

"No worries, bro; like I said, I was always there to set you straight," Mario replied.

"S-sorry…Sorry I was stupid…and got bit." His voice and grin were so shockingly reminiscent of the koopa Luigi that Mario couldn't help but shudder, even under the circumstances. Luigi, the sweet, innocent little brother he knew, was sacrificing himself, because these monsters inside him would perish alongside him. And Mario could understand, even though it was so painful to say goodbye.

"No, Luigi," Mario said. "For once in your life, stop apologizing to me. If anything it should be me who's sorry. Sorry for…" _Making you feel weak and useless, being so hard on you that you felt the need to create Mr. L, robbing you of your life in Brooklyn. Everything._ "For not letting you go back for your lucky hat."

Luigi nodded. Somehow, he understood everything even though Mario had said nothing. He relaxed into Mario's arms as Mario continued, "Maybe if I had…" Mario's lip was trembling despite his greatest efforts not to show weakness. "Maybe if I had this wouldn't be happening right now."

Luigi didn't respond.

Mario looked down at him, to find that his expression had frozen in place. His eyes were still staring at Mario, but sightlessly, not with the shine of attentiveness they usually held.

"Oh no, Luigi! Luigi!" Mario howled, knowing that it was too late. He grasped his brother tighter, afraid to let go, but knowing that sooner or later, he would have to. His world fell away and he broke down and sobbed, dignity stripped entirely away, weeping over the corpse of his last family member.

The throne room was silent except for Mario's hacking, uncontrolled sobs, and then suddenly they were joined by the sound of a slow clap. In mock-counterpoint, Bowser was applauding. "Good show," he said. "Too bad it was the green no-name, and not you, Mario, who kicked the bucket, but I'm fine this way too. To be honest, having that kid in my koopa army would've gotten annoying quick. He was a know-it-all. And way too much baggage. Too many…" He winked jauntily. "_Issues._"

Mario found that there was only one thing that could distract him from his grief, or the disturbing stiffening of his brother's already cold body in his arms. And it was anger. No, rage. Vision swam and pulsed, and he rose unsteadily to his feet, turning to Bowser. Had he thought he'd felt fury ever before this point? He'd been dead wrong. Nothing compared to this—this _animalistic, primal _need to rip Bowser's head off with his bare hands, this pulsing in his body, shaking him to the core, this desire to hurt, maim, destroy, kill…

"You did this!" Peach shrieked, backing away from Bowser and shaking her head as if to deny the grisly truth. "Luigi is _dead,_ and you're his _murderer!_"

"Why, thank you, sweetheart," Bowser drawled with a bow. "But I'm afraid I can't take all the credit. That honor goes to my hero and yours, Mario."

A scream of blind, unthinking fury ripped out of Mario's throat at this and he charged at the giant lizard king, unarmed and outmatched. Logic didn't factor into the equation. Mario's vision was filled with those terrible last moments: Luigi's face twisting in pain, his whistling breaths, his bloody mouth, that blank expression that was the very last image he'd see of his brother, the one he would most clearly remember, the one that would haunt him until the day he died.

His quick, savage blows bounced off Bowser's massive bulk and armored frame, ineffective and terribly amusing to Bowser. The only purpose they were serving was to shred his own hands, although he did not feel this; the only way he knew was by the blood glistening through his ruined gloves.

"Mario!" Peach had tears in her eyes again, and she ran to Mario, grabbing his elbow and trying to yank him away from Bowser. "Mario! I can't watch you hurt yourself like this anymore. We've got to go. We've got to leave this and come back to fight another day! Mario! Are you listening?"

Mario roughly pulled his arm from Peach's grasp and continued his futile attack on Bowser.

"Mario, listen, I _know_ you're angry. But this won't solve anything! It isn't what Luigi would have wanted!"

"Isn't…?" Mario finally turned to look at her, but his eyes were still enraged. "Don't you _dare_ stand there and tell me what Luigi _would have wanted! _What gives you the right?" he shouted at her, not heeding the tears running down her face.

"I'm sorry, Mario…" she whispered, and she glanced over at Luigi—or what was left of him—with grief and wistfulness…and confusion. Luigi had left them; he had sacrificed himself for them, and for what? What would they do without him?

It seemed that the universe should stand still with only one Mario brother. Like birds should stop chirping and seasons should stop cycling and nothing should be as it was. Yet, life would go on after Luigi. It had to.

Peach watched Mario as he continued to mindlessly attack Bowser. She looked up at Bowser's smug, remorseless face and vowed that Luigi's death would not go un-avenged. She had no doubt that Mario would weather even this most turbulent of times. She would help him as much as she could, and then together they would come back and march on this castle again, and this time, they would take no prisoners and execute the king. Peach sighed, her conviction slipping as she sank down next to Luigi's body. _Luigi…why did you have to leave? Can't you see how much we need you?_

Beyond, she heard Mario's anguished battle cry, and Bowser's booming chuckle that seemed to grow and grow until it drowned out all else, filling the room and reverberating. Peach had the thought that this moment could go on forever, and she had the feeling of being stuck inside an hourglass, with the sand very nearly full.

She put her head in her hands, and cried.

The End


	5. Bonus

***~*BONUS CHAPTER*~***

Alternate Ending #1:

Peach suddenly got an idea, which made her dry her eyes. She almost slapped herself; the solution was so obvious. She didn't know why she hadn't thought of it earlier. All these theatrics surrounding Luigi's death had been entirely necessary, and now she was actually rather peeved that now her eyes would be red and puffy and she had been seen with most unprincesslike snot running from her nose.

"Mario, will you stop being an idiot and ruining your hands?" she called. "If they become unusable, who will fix my leaky sinks and malfunctioning toilets? It isn't easy to keep an age-old castle running, you know!"

Peach reached into the pocket of her dress and produced a 1-up mushroom. She put it to Luigi's cold, unmoving lips. Quickly realizing the folly of this, she pried his mouth open and crammed the green mushroom down his throat.

Luigi got better.

The End

Alternate Ending #2:

Luigi stared up at the ceiling, his eyes fixed, glassy, and unseeing. Mario's eyes widened as he realized what had just happened—as he realized that his brother had just died in his arms.

"Oh no, Luigi! _Luigi!_" he cried, tears blurring his brother's face in his vision.

"What?" Luigi asked.

Mario leaped up about ten feet in the air, screamed, and suffered a heart attack.

Luigi sat up, rubbing his head, annoyed. "Why does everyone always have that reaction to me?"

Mario didn't respond.

The End

Alternate Ending #3:

Mario sat up in bed, breathing hard, clutching his covers hard in his gloved hands.

_Oh, thank goodness….It was all just a dream._

Mario still needed a little time to calm down from the disturbing visions he'd seen—a koopafied Luigi, some freaky second personality named Mr. L, and of course, Luigi _dying_ in the end. How ridiculous. Mario looked down at his hands, still clenching the blanket.

Actually, what was really disturbing and ridiculous was that he still wore those gloves even to bed. Why?

The End

Alternate Ending #4:

The crew watched the scene play out before them in the darkened movie theater in various degrees of shocked silence.

"It's like the writers...don't even care anymore," said Luigi finally.

Mario laughed. "You just say that 'cause you always get the axe in these things!"

"I specifically asked for no-butter," Peach complained, looking down into her almost-empty popcorn bowl. "I'm going to become as fat as Mario now! No offense."

Before Mario could think of a response, Toad piped up, "Why wasn't I in this movie? What, not a big enough name? Am I not photogenic enough? Not family-appropriate?-you know, I can't help that I'm a shroom and an inherent drug reference!"

The others sighed. "We know, Toad," they intoned in unison.

"I mean, there was a scene with a nameless toadette nurse. They could have easily replaced nurse with doctor and given me a cameo! Just a bit part...that's all I'm asking for!"

"I think your voice is too annoying," said Mario helpfully.

"Look who's talking," Peach said. "No offense."

Mario looked at the princess. "You know, just because you say 'no offense' after something doesn't mean-"

"Seriously, is this what makes great cinema nowadays?" Luigi lamented. "Turn me into some psycho who needs an imaginary friend who ends up taking over my mind, get me bitten by a zombie koopa thingamajig so something else can take over my mind. What is it with me and mind control? And then a flashy, overwrought death scene where I tragically die in my brother's arms-yeah, 'cause _that's_ not cliche at _all..._"

"Weegee..." began Mario.

"And how long would it take someone to die with a fireball through their heart? Like two seconds? And it takes me, like, five minutes because I'm too busy emotionally manipulating the audience for all I'm worth."

"I would like to know what was with everybody spewing monologues at the end... That dialogue was so clunky and unrealistic," muttered Toad, who was still stewing over the fact that he wasn't in the movie.

Peach turned at a sound behind her and gaped. "Who is that?"

There was a crew of men with cameras just behind the gang of...friends...or loosely allied people...well, the main characters, the good guys, the protagonists, you know.

"Mamma mia! Are you filming us _watching the movie?_" asked Mario in disbelief. "So it's like...a movie of us watching a movie of us..."

Toad hopped up and down in his seat with glee. "I get to be in this one!"

Mario scratched his head. "This is just getting confusing."

"You're always confused," giggled Peach. "No offense."

"That's a really stupid running gag," said Mario.

"Like I said, it's like the writers don't even care," repeated Luigi. He looked directly at **Verran**, **Luigisgirlf****riend**, **mabpanda**, **Robin Lee**, **Rene10**, and **GaapsReincarnation** and winked. "Fourth wall? What fourth wall?"

"Luigi, who are you talking to?" Mario asked, and then joked, "Mr. L?"

"Shut up, Mario," Luigi muttered.

The End


End file.
